Aluminium Usages

All kinds of Aluminium products are used in new home construction and in residential renovations: siding, skylights, weather-proofing, doors, screens, down pipes, hardware, canopies, shingles, etc.

Millions of homes are protected with Aluminium siding. It is available in a wide range of colours and textures and warranted for periods of up to 40 years. Aluminium siding is also available with insulation and reflective foil backing, so walls can be made weatherproof and energy-efficient. Insulated Aluminium keeps heat in (in winter) and out (in summer) four times better than un-insulated wood siding, four inches of brick of ten inches of stone masonry.

Every year, millions of Aluminium windows are installed in new homes and nearly as many are used for replacement. Aluminium windows and doors make an excellent heat barrier, and can reduce heat loss dramatically. Highly resistant and rigid, they have low rates of dilation and contraction and also of condensation. They are extremely stable, durable and thermal efficient.

Aluminium products are used for many items around the house. Garden fixtures, conservatories, pool linings and ladders to name but a few. New technologies mean solar captors can be made to be inserted in Aluminium frames, with the view of protecting the environment and saving energy.

Aluminium also has its place in the world of sports. It is quite possible that your bicycle, the frame of your tennis racket and your skis are an Aluminium alloy. The pegs for your tent and the frames on your knapsack are also Aluminium.

Aluminium in Transportation

The modern aviation industry would never have taken off without Aluminium; but the light, durable metal also carries people and cargo on roads, railways and waterways.

There are many good reasons why, but the main one is as simple as:

F = M x A (Force = Mass x Acceleration).

It takes force to move something; the lighter it is, the less force it takes. A truck, train, boat or plane can be moved with less power - or carry more cargo at the same power - if the vehicle itself is lightened.

It is estimated that 90% of trailer trucks have Aluminium bodies, as do buses and cargo containers. Aluminium does not rust like steel and an Aluminium body is said to outlast steel by three or four times. Also Aluminium does not react with most common materials, aso it can haul many bulk cargoes, including coal, chemicals and food, without harm.

Aluminium weighs a third as much as steel.

Aluminium components can cut 1,800 kilograms from the weight of a tractor-trailer and save from six to twelve times the energy it takes to produce the primary Aluminium. Thus, a truck can carry a bigger load without exceeding weight limits.On smaller commercial vehicles, Aluminium bodies may weigh 45% less than steel bodies, so more can be carried on a smaller chassis. That cuts both purchase and operating costs.

Aluminium is also used on the railways. The LRC trains (light-rapid-comfortable) manufactured by Bombardier have coaches made of Aluminium, as do those of France's TGV (high-speed train). Subway trains are made of Aluminium. Most railway trucks are too. The first dates back to 1931 and, in the 1960s, the first 100-tonne capacity box trucks were built with Aluminium bodies. Each car needed 6,800 kg of Aluminium and weighed 10 tonnes less than if it had been steel.

The automobile industry is using more and more Aluminium.

Aluminium's rate of corrosion is one-twenty-fifth that of high-resistance steel. Steel coal trucks must be rebuilt after some 15 years because of corrosion caused by sulphur. Aluminium doesn't have that problem.

Aluminium also lightens boats of all sizes. In 1891, the Swiss built a 17-foot Aluminium boat. A year later, the French built the first all-Aluminium seagoing vessel, a 40-foot yacht. By 1893, an American company was making Aluminium rowboats. Aluminium marine alloys were developed and, today, about 50% of outboard motors are made of Aluminium. Passenger liners also use Aluminium; large ones contain 2,000 tonnes of Aluminium, allowing for a weight reduction of 8,000 tonnes from their steel counterparts.

Aluminium is used in ship pilothouses because it is nonmagnetic and won't affect compasses.

Aluminium is a natural material for aviation: it is light, strong, durable and workable. The first gas-filled airships built in Germany in 1897 had an Aluminium frame covered with Aluminium sheeting. The Wright brothers' first aeroplane, which flew in 1903, had a four-cylinder, 12-horsepower auto engine made of Aluminium. Aluminium gradually replaced the wood, steel and other aeroplane parts in the early 1900s, and the first all-Aluminium plane was built in the early 1920s. Since then, aeroplanes of all kinds and sizes have been made of Aluminium.

Today, Aluminium remains the primary aircraft material, comprising about 80% of an aircraft's weight. The Boeing 747 jumbo jet contains 75,000 kg of Aluminium. Because the metal resists corrosion, some airlines do not paint their planes, saving several hundred pounds of weight.

© 2007 H.Snelson - Aluminium Extrusions Aluminium Fabricators

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